"BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE." The
Literary World
20 (Dec. 7, 1889) p. 460.

Betty Leicester. This sweet and wholesome little book has
little
plot to it. It simply gives the every-day life of a dear
every-day child,
sent to spend the summer in a New England neighborhood, and
the freshening
and pleasure which her breezy and helpful nature bring[s] to a
great many
people. Nothing happens in the course of the narrative more
exciting than
the escape from jail and death of a somewhat dimly outlined
criminal father
to some children in the village; but the whole is sunny and
delightful,
and full of characteristic hints and hits at character in Miss
Jewett's
happiest vein, from Betty herself to the delightful old lame
woman, whose
chief joy is braiding rugs out of rags, and who opines that
the royal family
of England "have to think of their example;" and adds: "I wonder 'f 'mongst all they've
learned
to do, anybody ever showed 'em how to braid or hook 'em a nice
mat? I s'pose
not, but with all their hired help, an' all their rags that
must come of
a year's wear, 'twould be a shame for them to
buy!"
--------- Houghton, Mifflin & Co. $1.25

Betty Leicester is by Sarah Orne Jewett,
and that
is equivalent to saying that it is in almost every respect as
good of its
kind as possible. It is a story of a young girl's summer, -- a
story without
a plot, merely of the people she met, and the things she saw,
and the influence
of her frank, sunny nature. It is stretched out and pieced up
from a shorter
story published in St. Nicholas, and it shows it, -- which is
a pity, it
might have been so nearly perfect. It would have been better
if shorter,
for it has not the substance for as much of a book as it has
been made
into.

Cottage Hearth 16 (January 1890), 23.

Miss Jewett has been known hitherto chiefly as
a writer
of books— quite unsurpassed in their atmosphere of sweet,
pure, New England
country life—for the general reader. She now takes her place
in the ranks
of those women whose works are calculated to elevate and
inspire the young;
not little children, but young girls who need a true woman's
influence
and counsel as they step forward to take their places in the
busy world.
"Betty Leicester" is a girl of fifteen, which she thinks "such
a funny
age—you seem to perch there, between being a little girl and a
young lady,
and first you think you are one and then you think you are the
other."
The story of her simple, natural, sunny life, bringing "a bit
of color"
into the gray lives of the country people where she spends the
summer,
is an exquisite bit of helpful writing, worthy of a place
beside Little
Women and Faith Gartney. The world seems to us,
after we have
read this little book, a brighter and better place to live in.

The American Hebrew 42 (2 April, 1890), 199.

If it be considered how important are the years
from thirteen
to sixteen in forming the reading habits of girls, it cannot
be thought
less than criminal on the part of parents, when they allow
their daughters
of this age to enter upon a course of reading consisting
mainly of unmitigated
trash. It is impossible to estimate how much of intellectual
degradation
is to be traced to this practice of permitting girls at this
period of
their lives to devote their entire leisure for reading, to
such stuff as
the silly novels of Mary J. Holmes, Mary Agnes Fleming, Bertha
Clay, Mrs.
Southworth, and the rest of the crew. True, it is not easy to
write a work
of fiction as is suitable for the age indicated. Miss Jewett's
first attempt
at this class of literature is perfectly successful in meeting
the requirements
of the case. There is a good story and it is cleverly written.
In fact,
the interest is continually sustained, and as was to be
suspected of a
writer of her culture and experience, the literary quality is
of that order
which ought to be one [of] the first essentials in books of
the character
we are now considering. It is indeed an excellent study
of character,
and an exquisite picture of New England life. Ah, but there is a moral to
the book!
Well, and what of it? It is any the less a work of art, for
that? Is not
this exquisite description of the manner in which a bright
girl coming
from a long course of foreign travel to the somewhat depressed
and depressing
social conditions of village life, touches it up, insensibly
to herself
and to those whom she influences, with a [an] radiant
gracefulness and graciousness,--
is not this the real element of art in the book? Is not this
better than
Mrs. Southworth's everlasting children changed at birth, or
Mary Holmes'
seamstress with the smile of a duchess, who is treated with
scorn by her
young mistress because she is afraid her "grand" brother will
fall in love
with the lovely sewing girl? It is disgraceful to compare Miss
Jewett's
delicate workmanship with this rubbish. But, how else will
negligent parents
be urged to pay some attention to this matter of the books
read by their
daughters? Just let such take up any volume by one of these
scribblers we have mentioned above, and then read this "Betty
Leicester" by Miss Jewett. They will then realize how great is
their responsibility
in relation to the subject, and how needful it is for them to
exercise
some oversight in regard to the reading of their children.

Reviews of Betty Leicester's Christmas
(1899)

The New England Magazine New Series
21: 4, (Dec
1899) 387.

Betty Leicester does not appear for the first
time when
we meet her at the Christmas festivities at an English house
party; for
Miss Jewett has already let her live, as she says, “in a
small, square
book, bound in scarlet and white,” but she remains the same
helpful and
dear child everybody loves to know.

From "About Girls and For Them." The
Dial
28 (December 1899), p. 235.

Of books more distinctly for girls, none
could be
more delightful reading than Miss Sarah Orne Jewett's "Betty
Leicester's
Christmas" (Houghton). It is an international work, telling
how a simple-hearted
little American girl made one of the stately homes of England
the merrier
for her presence.